Happy New Year and welcome to Nepal Now’s first episode of 2022. My name is Marty Logan. Please bear with the nostalgia that accompanies the new year: I still remember when the new millennia was a thing (and we all fretted about the impending cyber doom that would be delivered by the Y2K virus—until 12:01 am on January first 2000, when we sighed with relief after our computers booted up).
Actually, my memories reach much further into the past—but that is for another time. Today we are talking with epidemiologist Dr Lhamo Sherpa. Our chat also delves into the past, as far back as her mother’s childhood in Jiri, Dolakha district, but our focus is current. In particular, we’re discussing what barriers—if any—constrain what a doctor can or should say publicly beyond her specialization. To Dr Sherpa, an avid Twitter user, the lines are clear: see the world through a feminist lens, be compassionate, but bold at the same time.
Embracing that vision doesn’t mean that she has not been intimidated by online trolls in recent times. She singles out the violent reaction against herself and many others who protested authorities’ failed attempts to swiftly and effectively investigate the 2018 rape and murder of 14-year-old Nirmala Pant. They were labelled as foreign agents, fuelled by dollars. (Dr Sherpa doesn’t say this but I know that some women who spoke out on this issue were threatened with brutal sexual assault).
She says that she is more careful now with her online advocacy but the detailed daily posts she uploaded during the recent 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence demonstrate that she takes her tweeting as seriously as her paid work. Still, more must be done to ensure that women’s rights are tangible, she insists, particularly the right to make decisions about their bodies. Development actors need to revise their approaches, especially to see issues through the eyes of the people they’re meant to be supporting. Wryly, she notes that both men and women in the villages she works with are very receptive to the message of women’s empowerment—it’s the so-called educated people in Kathmandu who are slow to accept the need for change.
Resources
Dr Lhamo Sherpa on Twitter
Nepal Now social links
LinkedIn
Thanks as always to Nikunja Nepal for advice and inspiration.
Music: amaretto needs ice ... by urmymuse (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0) license.
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Nepal Now is produced and hosted by Marty Logan.
